Dressed For Success

about town

Shaved heads, black leather jackets and punk jewelry are a fairly common sight in downtown Orlando on weekend nights.

But in broad daylight on a weekday, the sight of two leather-clad, stubble-headed young women sitting cross-legged in the middle of the sidewalk was disconcerting to say the least.

What were they doing? Protesting? Plotting a robbery? Selling drugs?

One woman looked particularly threatening with a shock of bleached yellow hair dangling from her dark shaved head. Her ears were weighted with silver daggers and crosses. She looked hard, bitter, ominous.

Then an amazing thing happened. The woman stood up and pulled a shoulder-length auburn wig from a plastic sack. She pulled off her bulky black jacket and smoothed wrinkles from a surprisingly professional-looking dress.

She leaned over, pulled the wig over her shorn head then drew herself upright. She tossed her head and smoothed the locks into place and then smiled - no, beamed - at stunned passers-by.

She was beautiful. Sweet-looking. Angelic with a touch of imp in those bright dancing eyes. She was the girl you would want your son to date, the friend who would visit you in the hospital. She looked a lot like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman after she met up with Richard Gere.

The transformation was so startling, it stopped people in their tracks. They stared speechless, open-mouthed, unbelieving.

The young woman just laughed and said: ''Well, it wouldn't do much good for me to apply for a job looking like that, now would it?''

Makes you wonder what you really know about the other ''normal-looking'' people you work with in Orlando.